High School Insider: Darien looks dominant, but FCIAC race should be interesting

IL High School Insider Joe Lombardi, the author of the “Lax with Joe” blog at LaxLessons.com, focuses on the Hudson Valley/Long Island/Connecticut region. Joe is also an analyst for the MSG Varsity television network and is the primary author of the new edition of “Lacrosse for Dummies,” which was released last year.

During much of the growth of lacrosse in Connecticut, the battle for the Fairfield County Interscholastic Athletic Conference championship was a perennial two-horse race between Wilton and New Canaan.

Legendary coach Guy Whitten’s Wilton teams won 13 FCIAC titles in his 26 years as Wilton coach, a run that ended in 1995. In the years that Wilton didn’t win the county crown, coach Howard Benedict’s New Canaan teams usually did.

But then came the rise of the Darien Blue Wave under Jeff Brameier, who starts his 28th year as coach.

While Darien, with 14 college committed players, is clearly the top team talent wise entering the season, that does not necessarily mean it is a lock to win the FCIAC.

Brameier knows that full well. After all, while the Blue Wave have won six straight state titles, there have been three different FCIAC champions the last three years.

Last year, Darien fell to Greenwich 8-7 in the FCIAC semifinals after beating the Cardinals 9-2 a week earlier.

“The FCIAC has had major shifts in coaching changes in the past five years,” said Brameier in an interview with LaxLessons.com. “With that comes a timetable for change and program developments that allow the new coaches a chance to establish themselves and build from the youth up.

“New Canaan, Wilton and Greenwich will continue to be outstanding established programs that will always vie for league and state titles as well as play formidable schedules outside of the state. McMahon was young last year, but looks to be strong.

“Fairfield-Ludlowe returns stronger with the return of the Errett twins from Trinity Pawling. St. Joe’s is becoming an established stronghold in class S and surely more and more competitive in the upper tier of the FCIAC. Staples is starting the feel the effects of Paul McNulty’s experience as was demonstrated by the best ever season last year.

“All in all – the league is much stronger overall than it has ever been in overall balance.”

Greenwich senior midfielder Patrick Robben told LaxLessons.com that he has seen improvement each year.

“It seems that every year each team gets better than it was the year before and the teams that never really made an impact in the past are now going out and beating some of the top FCIAC competition,” Robben said. “Some of the teams that we will be contending with are obviously Darien and New Canaan but also Wilton with their strong senior class as well as Staples and Ridgefield.”

Garden City faces some early tests

Garden City is the best Long Island team at the start of the season.

That’s the consensus at this point, at least.

Will that be the case a week from now?

If it is, Trojans coach Steve Finnell will have to be happy because his team has a couple of big tests to start the season this week.

First, Garden City opens the season at Syosset on Tuesday. The teams have split their two meetings the previous two seasons.

Then, the Trojans host Smithtown West in an 11 a.m. Saturday showdown.

The Bulls are led defensively by Cornell-bound Jordan Stevens and Army-bound Brendan Madarasz. But it’s Smithtown West’s attack that has been getting most of the attention of late.

“Our strength this year will be our attack,” said in a Q&A with LaxLessons. “We return three very good players at attack who have loads of talent and chemistry with each other. Kyle Keenan, James Pannell and Matt Schultz will be a huge part of our team this year. As a defense it makes us better everyday playing against them. Another strength this year will be our experience, we return many guys who have gotten quality minutes in big games which always pays off.

Finnell told LaxLessons that he scheduled preseason scrimmages against such powerful squads as St.Anthony’s, Delbarton and Hicksville in preparation for the season-opening non-league games against Syosset and Smithtown West coming up this week.

Is it really 'just' a scrimmage?

Judging by the amount of interest it’s generated, you might think that when Darien visits John Jay in Cross River, N.Y., on Thursday at 4:30 p.m., it will be a season-opening game.

Actually, it’s a scrimmage. But because the teams are both nationally ranked in the Under Armour/Inside Lacrosse Top 25 (Darien at No. 3, John Jay at No. 21) and the schools are located just 20 miles apart, fans are a bit disappointed the teams are not playing for real. Especially when you consider that between them, they have a total of 26 college committed players.

As a result, the scrimmage has become eagerly anticipated as evidenced by the more than 200 comments in a thread comparing the two teams on the LaxLessons.com blog.

John Jay and Darien last played in the regular season in 2006 when the Indians beat Darien 10-8 to hand the Blue Wave their only loss it what wound up being a 21-1 season.